The Sickness
by Pepper9873
Summary: Set in Season 6. After an away mission, B'Elanna falls mysteriously ill. Both the Doctor and Tom are powerless to help her, and the only thing that has a chance of saving her is out of reach.


A/N: I can't believe I'm doing this to myself again, but I couldn't help it. As always, I hope you like it, and please leave a review. I like knowing what other people have to say. Now for the only thing that is above sickness in the mortal world, my disclaimer.

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters in the story, they are the respectful property of Paramount, I just write stories about them.

* * *

The Senior Officers sat in the Meeting Room going over Voyager's fuel crisis. They were running extremely low on Deuterium, and because of it, Captain Janeway had sent Tuvok and Seven, out of communications range. Icheb had gone along with them to gain some experience. Recently, Voyager's sensors had picked up an un-inhabited planet, with high concentrations of Deuterium.

"B'Elanna," the Captain said. "I'm sending you, Tom, and Harry down in the Flyer. I would transport you, but the planet's atmosphere won't allow a successful transport."

"Understood." B'Elanna responded.

"Very well then, you're scheduled to leave at 1030 hours, dismissed." Everyone soon flowed out of the Meeting Room.

B'Elanna waited patiently at the door for Tom and Harry. "We better get the supplies ready." she said.

"After you." Tom said with an exaggerated gesture of his hand, and a bow. B'Elanna shook her head in disbelief, and began walking towards the Turbolift. Harry followed after her, and gave his best friend a pat on the shoulder as he passed him.

Harry, B'Elanna, and Tom were preparing for the landing sequence. The Flyer had just entered the atmosphere, and the descent was going more rapidly than expected. Tom calmly tapped the control panel, trying to slow them down enough so the landing wouldn't be too bad. "I don't think were going to be slowing down anytime soon." Tom called over his shoulder." How's it going on your end?"

"We managed to engage the landing struts manually, but we're still in for a bumpy landing." Harry responded.

"Well, hold on tight, because according to my console, that 'bumpy landing' is coming up in about ten seconds." B'Elanna and Harry did as suggested, as Tom steered the Flyer as close to the Deuterium reading as he could.

The Flyer's landing struts touched the ground, and screeched in protest of the hard landing. "Is everyone alright?" Tom asked as he slowly got up from his seat.

"I believe so." B'Elanna said.

"I'm fine." Harry said.

Tom went to B'Elanna's side, gently moved the hair out of her face, and began to check for external wounds. She grabbed his hand, and cupped it into her's. "I'm alright." She smiled slightly.

"Just checking." Tom responded as he cupped her face with his free hand.

"You know," Harry said, trying to divert his friends' attention from each other. ", we still have Deuterium to mine."

"Alright, Ensign Eager, we're coming."

They grabbed their gear, then exited the Flyer. B'Elanna pulled out her tricorder, and followed the signal towards the Deuterium. "Place the equipment here." She pointed to a spot a couple of inches in front of her. Tom and Harry placed the mining equipment, and on her signal, activated the devices. As the holding container began filling, B'Elanna noticed something wrong. "Stop the procedure. This isn't Deuterium."

"What do you mean?" Harry asked as he came closer to the container. He peered into it, and saw a mud-like substance. He pulled his tricorder out, and began scanning the container and the surrounding area, just incase B'Elanna's tricorder was malfunctioning. "This is definitely the source of the Deuterium reading."

"That's odd." Tom said. "Mud that thinks it's Deuterium." B'Elanna and Harry stared at him oddly. "It's just an observation."

"Maybe that's why no one took a claim on the planet, because there isn't anything of value."

"Makes sense." B'Elanna said. "We should get that, ouch." She slapped her hand onto her neck. "Something just bit me."

"Let me see." Tom said as he pulled her hand away, to reveal a medium sized red bump. "We should have the Doctor check that out. Why don't you go sit down in the Flyer, Harry and I will get the gear."

"I'm sure it's not that bad."

"You never know."

B'Elanna kissed him on the cheek, and went to help Harry dump the container.

They finished loading everything into the Flyer, and Tom started to activate the engines. "Hopefully the take off will be better than the landing." he said more to himself.

As they began to lift off the ground, Harry and B'Elanna pulled the landing struts back into flying position. The ascent took a toll on the thrusters, but they managed to get back into space. Tom then hailed Voyager. "Delta Flyer to Voyager."

"Go ahead." Captain Janeway's voice came over the link.

"We're on are way back."

"We'll have the shuttle bay ready. Did you get the Deuterium?"

"No, Captain. It turns out that some of the soil underneath the planet's surface gives off a Deuterium signature."

"Alright, we'll see you when you get back. Voyager out."

"She sounded a bit disappointed." Harry pointed out.

"She's not the only one." B'Elanna said.

"Are you okay, you look a bit pale?"

"I'm just a bit nauseous."

"Maybe you should lie down." Tom said.

"I'll be fine, but if it makes you fell better I'll go." She got up from her seat and began to walk towards the back of the Flyer.

Tom and Harry waited the time out until they got back to Voyager. "Hey, Harry, could you take the controls, I want to go check on B'Elanna."

"Sure." Harry took Tom's seat, and Tom went into the back.

The lights were off, so Tom had the computer put them to quarter illumination so he could see, yet not disturb B'Elanna. As his eyes adjusted to the light, he noticed that he couldn't see B'Elanna breathing. "B'Elanna." he called softly. She let out a sleepy moan, much to Tom's relief. He sat down at the edge of the bed she was lying on, and placed a hand on her forehead. Her forehead was hot to the touch, and covered lightly with sweat. She was shaking, and upon further examination, Tom could see blood slowly dripping from her nose. He quickly slapped his combadge. "Paris to Kim."

"Yeah."

"Contact Voyager, have them transport B'Elanna directly to Sickbay once we're in range."

"Will do, Kim out."

Tom grabbed a hyper spray from a tray, and was about to inject it into her neck when she was transported out of the room. He went back into the cabin, and relieved Harry of the Conn.

In Sickbay, the Doctor was desperately trying to bring down B'Elanna's fever, and to stop the brain hemorrhaging that she was experiencing. He administered several medications, but for some unknown reason, she wasn't responding to any of them.

"How is she?" Tom asked as he entered Sickbay.

"Do you want the good news, or the bad news first?"

"Good."

"She stopped hemorrhaging a few seconds before you came in. But she isn't responding to any of the medications I've given her. She's been having trouble breathing, so I put her on a respirator. I'm still waiting on the test results to see just what is wrong with her."

"So what do we do?"

"We'll have to treat her fever the old fashioned way, with cool compresses. I already have some in that bowl over there."

Tom grabbed one of the compresses out of the bowl, pulled up a chair, and sat down next to B'Elanna. He ran the compress over her face, then kept it pressed against her forehead. The Doctor came over, and handed Tom another towel. Tom immediately began to wipe the access blood off of B'Elanna's face. She looked so helpless to him, something that she would have tried to hide if she were awake. He hated seeing her like that, especially when there was nothing he could do to help her. Her chest was going up and down rapidly, even with the respirator. Her eyes fluttered open for a few seconds, then closed yet again.


End file.
